Title page
Contents
Executive Summary 4
Chapter 1. Study Planning and Design 10
Introduction 10
Background and Rationale 10
Study Design 10
Sampling, Recruitment, and Participation Requirements 11
Burden Estimate 13
Chapter 2. Data Collection 15
Overview 15
District Information Form 15
Course Catalogs 16
Student Course Records and Education-Related Data 17
Procedures for Data Quality Assurance in Data Collection 18
Chapter 3. Course Coding Operation 19
Course Coding Training 19
Adapting School Courses for the Exchange of Data (SCED) 19
Data Quality Assurance Protocol for Coding Operation 20
Inclusion Criteria for Coursetaking Analysis 20
Chapter 4. Constructing Databases and Linking to the NAEP 2017 Data 21
Constructing Databases 21
Creating Student Weights 21
Generating Plausible Values 22
Chapter 5. Findings of the Electronic Submission Feasibility Study 23
Types of Course Catalogs 23
Characteristics of Student Course Records 23
Key Data Elements Provided on Student Course Records 24
Summary of Key Analytic Results 25
Chapter 6. Conclusions and Recommendations 27
Conclusions 27
Recommendations 28
The Use of Terminology in Middle School 28
Suggestions to the SCED Working Group 28
Additional Data Quality Assurance Requirement 29
Appendix A-Recruitment Communication: Benefits to TUDA Districts Participating in the Study 30
Appendix B-Recruitment Letter From NCES 32
Appendix C-TUDA Recruitment Brochure Text 34
Appendix D-Recruitment Material: Letter of Interest From Districts 37
Appendix E-District Information Form 39
Appendix F-List of Request Data 49
Appendix G-NCES Affidavit of Nondisclosure 51
Table 1. Estimated hourly response burden for each participating TUDA jurisdiction in the NAEP MSTS Pilot Study, by activity: 2017 14
Table 2. Major required and optional data elements listed in the NAEP MSTS Pilot Study's district information form: 2017 16
Table 3. Required and optional data elements collected for the district-level course catalogs in the NAEP MSTS Pilot Study: 2017 17
Table 4. Required and optional data elements collected for the student course records in the NAEP MSTS Pilot Study: 2017 17
Table 5. Required and optional data elements collected for the student education information records in the NAEP MSTS Pilot Study: 2017 18
Table 6. Number of transcripts collected for selected NCES high school transcript studies: 1982-2013 24
Table 7. Number of TUDA jurisdictions in the NAEP MSTS Pilot Study providing major aspects of coursetaking measures: 2017 25
Exhibits
Exhibit 1. Participating TUDA jurisdictions in the NAEP 2017 MSTS Pilot Study 13
Exhibit 2. Major issues identified with using the SCED classification system for middle school courses in the NAEP 2017 MSTS Pilot Study 29